Opposition Leader Peter Dutton used his Budget Reply speech to stress that 41,000 public service jobs would be lost in Canberra. Photo: Screenshot.
What’s another 5,000 public servants between friends?
In the federal election context, it’s everything – at least, it is for the campaign in Canberra.
Before last week’s Federal Budget, the Coalition had been making a big deal about the “extra 36,000” public servants Labor has appointed since coming to office in 2022.
Peter Dutton had repeatedly vowed to get rid of the public servants “in Canberra”.
Shadow finance minister Jane Hume has revelled in repeating that promise and even went further by insisting that she and the Opposition Leader would force public servants back into the office five days a week.
That little contribution to the pre-campaign quickly vanished after Mr Dutton, who at first came out strongly in support of ending work-from-home arrangements, was forced to rein it in when confronted with a backlash from within his own ranks.
Nevertheless, 36,000 Canberra public servants would be facing the chop under a Coalition government he leads.
That led to Labor, and in particular, Finance and Public Service Minister Katy Gallagher, to counter the threat by saying those extra public servants aren’t all in Canberra.
Public service jobs around the country – capital cities and regional centres – were at risk should the Coalition win office, she noted.
Senator Gallagher even undertook something of a national tour to highlight what jobs were at risk and where, and the threat the cuts would be to frontline services.
Dutton’s commitment, Gallagher pointed out regularly, meant that for Canberra, about 13,300 jobs would go, with the rest plucked out of centres around the country.
That all changed with the Budget and Mr Dutton’s reply speech last Thursday night.
The Budget showed more than 41,000 public servants additional had been employed under Labor – 5,000 more than had been reported.
This development was music to Mr Dutton’s ears, yet his reaction to it was just as sweet for Senator Gallagher.
“We will reverse Labor’s increase of 41,000 Canberra-based public servants – saving $7 billion a year,” the Opposition Leader said.
“That’s money we can provide back to the Australian people in frontline services.
“The growth rate of public servants under this government in Canberra is about three times what it was under the Rudd-Gillard government.”
Dutton used the phrase “Canberra-based public servants” when referring to the 41,000 Australian Public Service employees he wants to sack.
He had always been referring to “public servants in Canberra”, but this speech quite specifically stated it was from Canberra where he would find 41,000 people to get rid of.
Federal Labor MPs David Smith, Andrew Leigh and Alicia Payne joined Senator Katy Gallagher to say they will fight for Canberra’s public service. Photo: Region
This sparked a change in tack for Labor, especially for the Canberra-based federal MPs.
The very next day, Senator Gallagher and all of Labor’s ACT Lower House MPs called a press conference to lambast the Opposition Leader and his threat to public servants.
But this time, it wasn’t to say that most of those extra public servants are employed outside of the capital – it was to say that Dutton wants all of them to come from Canberra.
“We have to accept him at his word. That is what he said last night,” Senator Gallagher said Friday morning.
“He was very clear last night about what he is going to do with this town.
“He said again, and his leadership team have done so as well, that they will cut 41,000 jobs.
“They say Canberra-based jobs. They say they are going to be coming from this town.
“That will decimate this city. It would rip the heart out of this city.”
It’s worth noting that that particular press conference in Woden Town Square was really just for local media because it’s a strategy that will only work in Canberra.
By Labor now saying that Peter Dutton means it when he says they are all Canberra jobs on the line, it will go a long way to shoring up votes for the government in this town.
At that level, it’s clever politicking to now say Dutton should be taken at his word.
Outside of the capital, however, should Labor’s line be embraced, there could be a sense of relief in some quarters that those jobs aren’t coming from Brisbane, or Perth, or Hobart, or Newcastle and beyond.
For Labor, it’s a double-edged sword.
For Mr Dutton’s part, he believes he’s got nothing to lose by bashing Canberra a little more.
Look at how he answered a question on Sydney radio on Monday about where he would live.
Instead of just saying Kirribilli House over The Lodge, he went a little further and basically asked who’d want to live in Canberra anyway.
Seems he has his own definition of what work-from-home means.
